Welcome back to another edition of The fried Egg Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by us the fried Egg Pro Shop. This is one of the best ways you can support what we're doing. If you enjoy the podcast, enjoy the articles, the newsletter, great way to do it is support us through swag. So we have a number of b drattipolos in the shop. We just added a new putter cover, new hats, and also if you're looking to dress up your office, we have photography there. Office, home,
whatever it may be, apartment, we have photography there. It's stunning, especially if you get the metal variety. I highly recommend it. Anyways, you can visit the pro shop at proshop dot thefried egg dot com. It's Masters Week, the arguably best week of the year, and it's upon us. It's been just a few months since the last Masters. For this episode to preview the Masters, I thought nobody would be better than Shane Bacon. Shane is a host of Golf Today.
He does it with Damon Hack over the weekends and tournament rounds during the week every week on Golf Channel. This year, he will be part of the Live from crew as well as he will be doing some Masters dot Com coverage, so he's dialed in. Needed to bring somebody on that's smarter than me to talk about this Masters. So we each came up with five things to talk about and we get into it. So this should get you all primed and ready to go for the Masters.
If you're looking for more coverage. Just a quick reminder, I am on the Shotgun Start. I host that with Brendan Porath. We will be doing daily podcasts all week long, so check out that in the Shotgun Start feed, on Spotify, iTunes wherever you get your podcasts. But without further ado, here is the great Shane Bacon.
I miss a green for example, I'm already upset when I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in a bright egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida Egg Egg Egg, Frida egg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump course.
Shane, welcome back. It's been a while.
Appreciate you having me excited, uh to be on the Frida Egg podcast. You've got a fancy polo on and everything. Look at you with your is that a seminal polo.
It is a semino polo. Nice your fancy boy recently visited. Always good to take a locker on that place. They got that Walker cup coming up.
I'm jealous. I'm jealous. Have you've never been down there? Never playing golf in that area? And I think we are. Wife and I are planning a get out of the Northeast the real winter of February trip down to Florida next year. That's one of our things. And so I think I'm gonna be texting and hitting up everybody I can about playing a little bit of.
Golf the swap. Yeah, you know, outside of a few places, you could kind of forget about playing golf down there, but the few play. If you're only going for a few days, there's plenty of good places to see.
I listen, I'm not that fancy. Just as long as it's got a T box, a couple of greens that I can swing in, and it's not you know, thirty two degrees in Windy, I'm gonna be in on it.
That was the most amasic thing I've found was it was like seventy five and Sauday every day. It's just unbelievable way to live here Winters. Hey, Yeah, Golf Channel personality. We haven't talked to you. You know, you are the host of Golf Today, you host it with David Hack,
and now you're also part of Live From. I got to ask, you know, as a golf fan who grew up with Live Frun being kind of like an institution of major championships like round ends you turn on Live From, do you pitch yourself a little bit about being part of that?
Absolutely? I mean, I you know, being at the Players and get a chance to kind of host it every day was wild. You know, getting a chance to kind of be in that seat and work with Noda and Trevor and it's we're recording on Tuesday. Damon Hack and I are going to host for a couple hours today and take through some of the pressures. I think we had Phil and Rory and Dustin, so that'll be fun. I mean, you know, I mean being a part of
any of this stuff is just crazy. And being involved in the capacity, you know, I go back to two years ago, Andy with with you and I kind of bumming around Augusta and you guys obviously had had a lot of work. You guys were kind of getting shotgun start going, and you had the big Spey house and I was over there, but I didn't really have a lot I was doing in the area, you know, in terms of work and to kind of fast forward a couple of years and kind of have these opport comunities
as wild. So yes, I definitely do pinch myself. I am. I'm excited to be a part of it. It's very very cool. I got, you know, more text during the players than I've received in a long time burning I've done, so I can only imagine what this week's going to be like. We did a look back. We do a thing tournaments, we forget. It's a little bit like kind of what you guys do in terms of kind of looking back. Obviously way more condensed version for TV, but we did a look at Damon and I had a
look back. We called it a Master's worth remembering on Monday, where we look back in ninety one and Woozies win and then we're going to dive a little deeper into Rory today. So you know, it's just fun. It's five minute little hits here and there on live from and involved in that coverage is very cool.
Sneaky underrated Old Masters. Is that Stadler one with Dan Pole. I love the Dan Pole story. He's got a golf course in Michigan called the pole Cat that he designed.
The pole Cat, the Polecat. Have you played it?
No?
I want to, though, I need to see the logo.
I know. And he was like he was like a long hitter before and obviously a great athlete, like they talked about how he could have played Major League Baseball. He was, you know three. I think he was an All State in three different sports in high school. So you know, it's that was a cool one and he almost won, but it would have been one of those obscure Masters winners. But yeah, looking back at terments is
so fun. You just find so much Little fo and Woozy is always a character to pull back threads out.
Yeah, you know, I can kind of tell my wife this one day. I can go back over the course of my adult life and I kind of know how old I was, just depending on what I was wearing at the time. And one of the cool things about going back in any sports writing, but especially golf, is how they wrote, you know, how they wrote about the players, how they wrote about tournaments, the stuff they would dissect. You know, sometimes it was the way they looked. And you guys have focused a lot on this, the way
they looked, the way they dressed. You don't you don't see that as much. I don't. I don't feel like writing is as revealing as in the negative as it used to be. And h and so it's definitely exciting to to kind of look look back on that that type of stuff. And obviously, I mean you forget sometimes how many people had chances to win. I mean, that's the thing about these major championships and these big events, is you know, players that didn't win one having so
many opportunities. I can only imagine how many times on this podcast you're gonna bring up Lee Westwood and when you dive through his career to look at how close he's been so many times in this particular major championship and still hasn't won one. And you know, I mean, outside of maybe this year, probably will not win one. It's it's defeating. I had a friend of mine text
me on Sunday. They were at Easter brunch in Florida, and Ernie Els was at the table next to him, and I got that text and I was bummed out because Ernie should be up here, you know, Ernie should be flying up to Augusta and playing on Sunday and getting ready for the Masters. And the fact that he's not. It just they're listened the windows short and you only
have so many times. It was crazy. The one player I've heard mention that in this press conference this week was Callin Morakal of all players, who's you know, one of the youngest players in the field.
You know, everybody always says, oh, he'll have another chance. I think that's something that like we always talk about with like oh, song Jay didn't get it done last Masters, He'll he'll get way more chances. But the thing about golf is like it is a fleet. It can be fleeting. We just saw it with Jordan Speith. We see it with players all all the time that just lose it. And you know, we saw it where Sevy played his best golf at a young age. Like the chances you
might not get another one. People we always like to say, oh, you know, he'll get way more chances at it. It's good that this guy one because you know so and so will has you know, ten of these. But it's really hard to win one of these four events every year, like everybody wants to win one of the four, and you know that's that's the thing. There aren't many chances.
I was, I watch the Tiger this week on HBO. I'd never I hadn't watched it yet, and I watched it, and it to just kind of go back and remember what Tiger did in the majors, And obviously that was his focus, but you know India, any great player, that's their focus. And the fact that he just would win them all the time. He would show up the favorite
and win them and win them different ways. And I called you a couple of days ago and was just talking about Hoylake and you know, him hitting iron off all those teas, like the fact that you can do that and pull it off and and be that consistent. And you you brought up a point, you said, the difference in the mentality then, which wasn't that long ago versus what we see now in modern golf. Bryson's press
conference was just on. He was talking, he got asked and was talking about different approaches or angles he might take off the tees and it's just it's just so different that you know, it's it's I want to hit driver unless I can't, is the mentality now, and and and you know, not what fifteen years ago it was, I need to find fairways. That's that's the best chance of success.
I know you're a big basketball fan. I'm a big basketball fan. But Tiger in a way is kind of reminiscent of the way Jordan or Lebron has won across different eras of the game and in drastically different styles, where both of them did it with sheer athleticism early and talent, and then as as they've aged, they've gotten it done different ways, where you know, Lebron's just like
kind of like a bully. Now he's big, but it's not just the you know in Miami where he was just on a whole different athletic level than everybody else, and he was thin down like now he's a little a little bit more of a thick boy goes down there and he's still you know, you know, reads a defense unlike anybody else and knows where the ball's going,
where the defense is coming from. But like Tiger was that way where he's won across different generations, different styles in playing playing different styles, you know, like Hoylake, like nobody would do that now, like where he just hit iron everywhere, but he won that way.
It was it was it's wild. And when you watch the replays of the way he approached it, in the shots he hit, I was telling you, you know, this guy's hitting a blade two iron. I mean I had a blade titles two iron and when I had kind of the driver yips in my early twenties, and you know, you miss it sometimes and you hit it off the toe and it goes like two oh five, you know. And the fact that this guy is hitting a blade two iron in the center of the face, in the
middle of every fairway was wild. And again to your point, it's it's that mentality, what do I need to do in this game against this team. You know, I've been trying to think of what's the most impressive thing in sport, and you brought up the lebron thing, and I think I've landed on this. I think the most impressive thing in sport is being a quarterback and winning super Bowls on different teams. Because you go to different coaches, different staff,
different approach, different mentality, different players. You've got to get the best out of a completely different line. You know, you've got to get your defense on at least to a level that can be competitive because they've got to be able to pull their weight. And so when you look at like a Peyton Manning, you know, winning multiple super Bowls on different teams, and Tom Brady, and you think about how hard that must be, it brings up
to what you said. It's Tiger won early in his career when he was longer than everybody else, and then he won a major where he didn't hit driver and you know, and then you watched twenty nineteen and it was this. It was a different looking golf swing. It was a different looking Tiger Woods. Yeah, and somehow the mentality the first tea, you know, the whole story about Tony fenw say, and he asked him a question, didn't really get a response, And all of those things might
be different, but it's the same mind. And again that's that's the key to it. That's why tennis players are so great on different surfaces. It's because they're the same. It's the same mind. Say, it's knowing what to do. Tiger is the best ever in knowing what to do to get it done. Because Tiger knew was a seventy two whole battle, not just a one day, two day, three day deal.
I can't remember who tweeted out on that Sunday morning where you know Tiger is his approach and mentality and relationships with his peers has changed so much in this last chapter of his career, where you know, he was
friendly with everybody. And then I remember somebody tweeted out, I can't remember who, but it was like, Tiger's got that look, that look we haven't seen it in a while, like that that early Tiger look, and and where on Sunday he wasn't friends with anybody, No, And I think that that's like at the end of the day, when you get down to it, all time competitors, they hate losing more than they love winning.
And it's the ones they remember, right, It's the ones that came so close. I mean, it's something I've always wanted to ask Tiger. You know which major that you lost hurt you the most? You know which one did you feel like you should have won?
It's gotta be y e Yang, right.
It's probably easy to lean on the y Yang one because he was so close and actually missed some late Putts. But you know there's probably some masters in there where he feels like he could have got more out of it. I mean, I go to twenty ten, you know that that that press conference after in ten where you know what, he finished fourth, you know, first golf tournament and however many months and you could tell he was frustrated. I mean, there was nothing, there was no positive he was taken
from that finishing fourth. He was bummed that there was people that beat him. So I would always love to know which one he felt like that because something that I found so interesting. You know, I do the podcast Get a Grip with Max with Max Homa, and Max said after the Waste Management, you know, Max went on this great run this year, even before the win at Riviera, and he said, you know, I feel like I had the game to win at the Waste Management. And I
think he finished forty first that week. You know, it wasn't he didn't finish second or fourth or eight. You know, he finished in the forties in this PJ Torvent, but he said, my ball striking was so good that I feel like I should have won that week. It's just it's so crazy how thin the line is.
Right, I completely agree. Like, that's the thing I missed most about not being out covering these events occasionally in person is when you watch it in person, you realize, like, God, it's just a shot here or shot there. In AUGUSTA of all the places they play year in year out, might be one of the where that's magnified the most. It's like, definitely, it's did you pull off the shot on thirteen or did you hit in the water you
make double instead of a potential birdie. Three shots and all of a sudden, the whole fabric of the tournament is completely different with it with this golf course where you know there's a car crash everywhere and it's not the best term, but ah, you know, just a bad, big number around every corner. That's the thing about this tournament is the line between excellence and disaster.
Is so thin, and we see it and that and that is again what's so great is I feel like we see it to a certain extent every year. I mean, even in the November Masters, you know there were opportunities, right, and and the golf course played so different, but I mean, you've got to go get it even when it is playing that gettable and so it's such a different mentality I feel like, and I don't want to sneak into our five things that we're gonna get in too.
You could. You could kick it off here, you know, if you want to kick it off. We each came up with five things. We'll go down them and we'll probably have some overlap. We haven't talked about what our five.
Things are, so I want to real quick. You know, you're talking about the thin line and the mentality of this golf course and what I love about the Masters and what I think is so special and cool about it. First, obviously it's the Loan Major that we see at the same golf course every year, but it's the veteran players talking about Augusta National. And when they talk about Augusta National,
it's always about the mistakes and avoiding the mistakes. And you know, sometimes I laugh about this each and every year, and I've done it since I was a kid. I laugh about thirteen, you know, because when the whole location is back right on thirteen, everybody hits it front left, and when the polocation's front left, everybody hits it back right, you know, because you just can't error on the wrong side. We did a deep dive on the nineteen ninety one Masters.
I was telling you about there was this great quote Jack Nicholas talked about. So the golf course was playing pretty gettable in nineteen ninety one, and Nicholas in the second round was very much in contention, and he hits
it in the water on twelve. The whole location was I believe it was front right in that second round, and he went after it because he said the conditions made him think it was a gettable shot, and he hit it in the water on twelve, and he makes triple and he of course berdi the next four holes, as Jack tends to do, but he makes triple there at twelve, and that kind of ended his chances. And he said, he goes, you know, in a different conditioned Masters, I'm not sure I would have tried to pull that
golf shot off. So again, it's just you see the flag on twelve and it's just floating over there on the right side, and you've got a nine iron if your Brooks Kopka or you're Molinari or your Tony Fena, and you go, I can hit this thing to ten feet And the moment you get out of what you have to think on this golf course is when the chances of the jacket go away. I want to start my five things though with something I feel like you'll appreciate. You're a guy much like me that likes weird stats,
so I found this one. We are in a current run at the Masters of the return of the longer first name winners. Okay, yeah, oh yeah. So from nineteen ninety four to twenty and fourteen, nobody with a first name longer than five letters won the Masters. It was all short names. From twenty fifteen to now, we've had four winners with first names of six letters or longer. That brings in some of the players that I know you love in and around the game. The long first name is back.
Yeah, I think that's good for like Christian bozeiden Out.
He was one of the ones I'd circled. But I was looking at some of the longer names.
It's that good for a guy named Lee or Rory.
Well, they had they had the run though, you know lefties have success at Augusta National. Apparently the shorter the name, it helps.
Trying to think of who else, like what big name? I guess six is six is questionable? On length. You know, I've got a netpick there, like six letters. I feel like it's pretty standard. But Patrick Reid's gotta love it. Dustin, I mean it's six there's a lot of six letter you know, almost all the top ten in the world outside of job rom is six letters bad.
Can't Ley's got a chance? You know, the return Bryson has seen this long first name resurgence help his chances at August as well, so uh fitz.
Hard the hard hitting analysis here.
I love Aryl Hatton. I mean, just going down the list some jay. I mean, this twenty year run is thankfully for those guys attended.
I think Arrell's gonna get in his own way. The major championships haven't haven't aligned with Tarrell.
So maybe this is the week he changes.
It exactly exactly. I love that. You know, that's a good, you know, non serious, but serious first starter.
You're looking. This is what Andy does is he was looking to the top right, which means he was thinking of names. I could tell he was thinking of short or long names. I'm not sure which way you were going, but I could tell I could see the workings in the brain.
Well, I've got a second screen, so I was looking at the second screen at the World Golf Records. I'd like to think that I could just pull all those names off the top of my head. Okay, I like that. One of the things I'm watching is the old guys. Obviously I'm a big Lee Westwood fan. But besides Wes, he was looking for his first You got Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Sergio, Louis Stason, all these guys who have
had a ton of success. Some of them have won in Augusta, others have been extraordinarily close all the time. All of them are getting into a little bit of their twilight of their years. Louis thirty eight, He's almost
a little unfair to throw in this bucket. But all these other guys who we've watched for decades now play at Augusta National, are in their forties, and you know, two hundred and twenty five, especially in the case of Louis, Sergio, Scott, and Rose, two hundred and twenty five players have won one major championship eighty three of one two or more.
So you're getting you know that adding that second major championship really does propel you into a different class player, you know, like it's one thing in this sounds this is the rich. You know, this is like being a ten one hundred millionaire and getting to the billionaire level. I feel like in golf, but there aren't that many guys that have won multiple major championships. And I think in this era of golf, we're going to see less of the eight plus major champions, six even six plus
major champions. I think they're going to be rarer. So getting to two is such a big deal in terms of legacy when you're looking at the post Tiger era of golf.
Yeah, I've called this era the era of the one time major winner for a few years now, and I think that's only getting easier to call the run. I mean when you look at the some of the players, I mean, I don't call any major win a fluke, you know. I mean, obviously you've got to play really well to win a major.
Not even Jimmy Walker.
Yeah, but I mean, you know, Jimmy player, I mean Jimmy, I mean, Jason Day tried his hardest to win that, you know. I mean he makes eagle, two iron, two iron to make eagle and force Jimmy to to make par there at the last I mean he was being pushed his hardest. I mean, you think about Jason Duffner and Kevin Bradley, and there's these players that you know, I think you consider a notable player that's that's probably gonna end their career with one major win. I love
the idea of who can get to two. And I think, you know, this is a golf course that favors experience, and this is a place that favors experience. And when you're Louis, You're Adam Scott, you're Sergio, you're justin Rose, you're in that crop of players that obviously understand AUGUSTA National and understand to a point what we talked a little bit about with Tiger, right, it's it's understanding. This is four day's you know, you the first day is important,
but it's not overly important. Just get yourself out there and just get things going. Don't shoot something nasty, don't come out there and shoot thirty nine on the front on Thursday. And so yeah, it's it's gonna be. I don't know, I have a feeling, you know that I think that some of the names you mentioned could really get in the mix. I mean, you know, you obviously Lewis.
What is a name that hasn't won a major yet, but I feel like he falls right under this, right, a guy that tends to play well if this golf course totally understands, it's been playing some great golf this year. So it's just this year, twenty twenty one, we've seen this run of older guys playing well. You know, We've got a couple of guys in their forties that won in the in the early part of the rap around
the season, and Brian Gay and Stewart sinc. Obviously, we've seen some great play from Sergio and yeah, I mean we're just kind of waiting for some of the other names to step up. But it's I always feel like this is a place. I mean, we saw Freddy Couples do it for what like thirty years. It's a place
that if you get Augusta, you can play it. And unfortunately, for a lot of the players, if you don't get Augusta, if you're a Lee Trevino or a Martin Timer, it's not it just doesn't ever make sense to you.
I think the other thing with the if the weather holds off, if I saw there might be some rain Friday, Saturday.
If there's no rain and it plays firm and fast the way they're talking about it, I think that is only going to play into the experienced player's hands more this year, just because it soft Augusta is a lot different than firm Augusta, and all of a sudden, being in the right place is magnified so much because you know, chipping from the wrong spot is infinitely harder when the when the Greens have a little fire to them.
My second thing is obviously something I think a lot of people are focused on Andy and it's not some sort of a surprising thing, but it's I think it's what My number one thing I'm circling is just speak. I mean, I just want to see speed that Augusta again. Watching Jordan's speed play Augusta was poetic early in his career.
It was he was the next guy, you know. I mean, I feel like when you start to tick off the names that just seemed to get here every year, and and the Gulf, and it was they were gonna be in contention. I mean they might not win, but they were gonna be in contention. It was Jordan speed. I saw there was this crazy stat that are our boy, Justin Ray sent out. Speak has already led or co led nine rounds at the Masters. There's only four players all time with more Jack Palmer player in Woods and
Tiger's Tenbelieva. That's the number. If he has one more, he ties Tiger's number at Augustin National. You know, obviously getting the win is getting to win. I don't think I'm gonna go either way with that. If he wins I Vleiro, it doesn't win of Leira. I don't think it hurts or helps his chances this week. But I just I'm excited to see Jordan Speed play this golf course. To me, it's it's what we're supposed to see in the modern game. Is is this is the next Masters guy.
I you know, the thing with Speak too, is like even when he was in dark place as the last couple of Masters not playing well, he's still around, still taking cuts, Like I think. The thing that amazes me always and with no player I've ever you get this playing competitor, like playing golf at a fairly high level.
Like there are guys that you just watched play and you're like, I don't understand how he just did what he did with like I imagine it's so frustrating for players that play with speed, because you know, you can walk off the golf course and feel like you've hit it so much better than them. And I think this happened with Rory famously when he played with Speth and speeds all over the place. He's in these weird spots, but
he's never in horrible spots. Like he he knows where to put it around the green so he can get up and down. But and then he just takes advantage of And I think that's the thing. He's got this patience where he knows there are birdies out there to be made. But the key is his His will to not give shots up is so incredible. And his ability to shoot sixty seven when you think about almost any other player in the same positions would have shot seventy four,
you know, like it is an astounding thing. I'm so the other thing, I'm just so happy he's back. I think going through what he just went through is going to be such a big thing for the rest of his career because I think it teaches him that it's not a given, that is not like necessarily a foregone conclusion that you're going to be one of the best players in the world all the time, and the fragility of the game and all the work that has to
go in. I think it's it's just going to help him in the long run going through this adul drum that he went through.
So we've always tried to find the next Tiger. I think we all label to Rory that. I think I was easy to do, you know, wheor he drove the ball unlike really anything we'd ever seen in our entire lives when he first came out and still to this day drives it incredibly well. Homa tells a story about playing with him with the Wells Fargo and he really
never just missed a driver all day. Instead, on eighteen he kind of hits one and Max said he was going okay finally and he said it starts drawing back middle of the fairway and just he hit like a twelve yard draw there and not a six yard draw. And he was like, this guy's a machine. This is crazy. But you know, why is it that we have continued
to skip over Speeth as the next Tiger. I mean their games are so similar, right, I mean Tiger was longer, you know, Tiger was one of the longest guys in golf, much longer than everybody was playing against in his prime especially, but never a great driver of the golf ball, would miss the drives in the right spot, much like what you were just saying about Jordan Speed. I mean, I always think about where Tiger hit it on eleven at Augusta. You know, during his prime, it's like he'd always miss
it right because he knew he could make par. He knew he's not gonna hit a left, he's gonna make six right, and was an unbelievable iron player. Speats an unbelievable iron player, and their refusal to make bogey right, I mean, the mentality of I'm not gonna make bogey here. I don't care what I have to do. I go back to fifteen all the time. You know that last that third round where he makes double one set seventeen
on Saturday. You know, he hits it over the green on eighteen, and all of a sudden, you're kind of sitting there, going, this could get bad for Speed, right, this is not what he wants to do. And he hits that shot, that flopshot from over the green at eighteen at Augustin makes Parr and obviously goes on to win. I feel like Speeeds comparisons to Tiger are as close
as anybody since Tiger's prime. Yet we're always searching. We're looking at Dustin, we're looking at Rory, now, we're looking at Bryson, and I think the guy's been there the whole time.
I think it's because the number one easiest thing to pick out from Tiger at an early age was his sheer overpowering nature comparison to other pros, and because it was mine though right, I know this is you know, I think over time as he developed, I think like Speith is more like a later Tiger Woods, like maybe twenty thirteen, twenty eleven Tiger Woods where there have been other but like that, that sheer overpowering nature. And I think the thing is is that nobody's Tiger because nobody's
been able to combine all of those things, right. Nobody's got combined the work, ethic, the iron play, the power, the incredible short game, the you know what you tell what we both talked about, the you know, refusal to give away shots. I think everybody's got some Tiger qualities, but in general, these great players are all missing one of them. Like you look at Rory, it's like god, those like the short iron play just leaves you wanting more.
But then you watch Tiger play it is probably short irons. It was like, Okay, well he's in the fairway, this is gonna be ten feet. Yeah, you know, even if even if it wasn't ten feet all the time, that's how you felt. There was an air of inevitability versus
like Rory's got this era of unpredictability. Rory's one of mine, And you know, the guy's his record at Augustus outstanding, his record in general, like even when he's in these doldrums of struggles, Like you look at his results and you're like, god, he finishes like top ten every week. But Rory at this point, I have no clue any result was surprised me. I actually I kind of like the fact that he's coming in here. There's no expectation on him for like the first time that I can remember.
In the lead into the Masters, nobody is like, oh, Rory is a favorite. Everybody is kind of and I think not having that bright spotlight on him might be able to help. And like, as you know now, dealing with winter. Sometimes when you don't have expectations as a golfer, like you come out and you're always surprised, Like the first round, you're like, huh, I hinted that bad, like I,
but you had zero expectations. I think with Rory, one of the things that he's really struggled with, and I think this is, you know, where we could talk about differences besides the short iron play with Tiger is like, I think Rory struggles a little bit with the heightened expectation.
I think it's so wild to think about the confidence right for Rory McElroy, considering what he's done with the golf ball his entire life and the fact that he you know, mintioned things. Maybe I'm not as good as I used to be, you know after the PGA Championship. I mean, you know, Rory gives Rory's one of those guys that gives us everything we ever asked for in a professional athlete, and then sometimes we grow him for it,
which is ridiculous. But you know, he's just unbelievably honest, and he talks about everything, and he doesn't shout away from any subject, and there's a ton of respect you know, on my end, on your end, you know, people to cover the game. To get these things from a guy that is one of the top names and faces in the sport is refreshing. I mean, I think about Dame Lillard, you know, my favorite player in the NBA now, and
just how every time Dame talks it's impactful. You know, every time he says something, I feel like I'm listening. I want to I want to go back and find clips from the night before if I fell asleep because I live on the East Coast. In these games, one end till midnight.
Yeah, and so by the way, well it's a struggle.
Stayed up for the National Championship game last night, stayed up for the whole thing. It was like eleven forty five when I went to BET. I don't know how people do it, but yeah, I appreciate everything Rory says. You know, for me, I think you nailed It's it's having no flue. You know. The problem is is that you say what you said about expectations, and I agree
with you that he's coming in with lessoned expectations. I think about a couple of years ago, you know, coming in after the win at the players and the way you've been playing. I think he had seven top tens and a row headed into the Masters, and we're all going, this is going to be it, right uh, And it wasn't, as it continues to be not it. But the moment that first tee shot happens on Thursday and he makes his first thirty and the first time he's on that
leader board, I think the entire narrative changes. I think we all change when Rory does what we expect him to do. You know, this year for Rorri is he's got to get off to a better start. We've seen how brutal he's been in these opening rounds at the Majors the last few years. And then we're actually on Tuesday's Live from We're going to dive into I'm calling it that round. Rory continues to have that round at Augusta.
And that's the thing he's got to somehow delete from his game plan is is the there's been just one round, one nine, one run for Rory that's basically ruined his chances, and no matter what he does on Saturday or Sunday, when he's eight or nine or ten back, it's just not going to be enough that's the difference to any now.
I feel like with the talent on the PGA Tour and with the talent and professional golf is, I think it used to be a lot easier to make up for a bad round, you know, especially a bad round early, and now at a place like Augusta National, when it's playing a little softer like we saw in November, you just can't afford to shoot over par. I mean, if you shoot over par, you're not gonna win. It's just you. You can't make up the ground. There's too many good
players that are always locked in. So you know, I was going through this, you know, to look through some of the Rory rounds. It's like he's he's you know, he's eight back, ten backs, seven back after the opening round or after the first two rounds. Yeah, you gotta be perfect going into a weekend if you're gonna have even a chance to win. I know, Kyle Porter jokes
about this all the time. You know, it's, well, if Rory shoots sixty five on Sunday, it's like people don't shoot sixty five on Sunday, you know, so he's got to shoot seventy on Thursday. Yeah, don't shoot, worry about shooting sixty five on Sunday, shoot seventy one on Thursday, and then you'll have.
A chance exactly. And I think that comes with that heightened expectations. It makes it hard to get off to
a good start. I look at championship golf too, and I think that there's always a six to nine hole stretch outside of the just utterly dominant performances in every major, the guy that wins has a six to nine hole stretch where he does not hit the ball very well and the wheels can come off, and it becomes about how they manage and get through that stretch, whether they make bogies and doubles or if they're just if they get make those ten footers, those twelve footers that save
those clutch pars that feel like birdies after the places they've been like, it is so pivotal, and it's okay for Rory to have that bad stretch out of the gates, But what it's turned into is like what you said, it's like forty one on a nine. It's like McLeroy should not shoot thirty nine nine holes, especially at Augusta where the par fives. He doesn't he hasn't been feasting on the par fives the way he used to feast on him.
I feel like, well, and one more thing on this and then I'll throw out another one at you. Is to your point, and I agree with you. That stretch, you know, that run you talk about where everybody has them, I mean outside of you know a few of the incredible dominant wins or you know the great runs we've seen. I agree with you, there's always that stretch. Right. What that says to me is short game, because your short
game's got to get you out of those stretches. You know, you've got to be able to get it up and down from a bunker. You've got to be able to make a twelve footer for par And when we circle the parts of Rory's game that's lacking, that's less than those are the parts. I mean. He's just never been a great scrambler and he's never been a great putter. And so when you look at those things, when you're not hitting it great, you've got to lean on the short game to get you out of it until you
find it again. And these pros find it in five holes or eight holes or nine holes. They find the swing again, they find what was not working. I mean, you go back, you know, you go back to ninety seven and again we've talked Tiger a lot, but just to go back to ninety seven and think about Tiger opening his Masters and shooting forty and you're kind of going, okay, you know, he didn't have it. This is this is strange,
you know, but he could when he found it. It was thirty on the way in, right, and when he found it, it's still getting getting in it under par and so and to me, that's so much about the short game. Sure, he could, you know, attack these par fives and hit it close on fifteen like he did, and things like that.
But it's the short game that saves you. And when you look at any great player, any great run they've had to win a major or to kind of keep the ship afloat, it's almost always, you know, getting the ball up and down in a couple of bad spots, make it a couple of great par saves, and then you get a chance to make the Verdier eagle.
Yeah, the small things like it's easy to look at strokes gained and say, oh, short game is the least important part of the game. But when you reach the highest level of the game and the highest level of championships with the best players in the world, the littlest thing are the things that separate the great and the winners from the guys that finished tenth. Like the line,
like we've talked about already in this podcast. That line is so thin, and it's just the simple little things I even think back to, like the Annua just this last weekend, Like Migliaccio, she hid it in the bunker like so many people did on eighteen, but she gets it out. She's still got a wedgend and she got up and down unlike a lot of people from that position. It's like it's when you have to chip out because you're in a bad spot and you get up and down and you make a par and it feels like
you made a birdie. Like those are the things that just in a competitive and championship setting are the things that just make you go because it's so mental. You have to have that positive vibe. And Rory more so than almost anybody is, like he is so easy to tell when things are going and when he's got it going, Like in a way, he's a little bit of a front runner, you know.
So one of my things is we have as good a shot as ever to see a back to back winner.
I have this on my list.
Yeah, you know, you go back to twenty sixteen as good a chance as ever to see somebody went back to back. But you know, I mean, who better to do this than Dustin. I haven't seen it since O two with Tiger hard to do. Not a lot of back to back winners at any major championship, much less the Masters. But I feel like this is as good a chance as we're ever gonna see to see somebody do it again.
Do you feel this is kind of what my note on DJ was. Do you feel in a weird way that he's like flying under the radar? Is you remember one player in the world he won, He'd won in dominant fashion, like a record and somehow, like the air, the vacuum of coverage. You've got Speith and you've got Bryson and jt Is is obviously a favorite. But like somehow DJ is not really being talked about as much as I think we should, and I don't understand, like, sure he has he didn't play well at the WGC
or the Players, but you know the players. He can't hit driver a lot of places there, like it kind of mitigates the and then he didn't make it out of his pool and match play. But like, we just went through a stretch where he went from the PGA on he went T two one two, second T third, which was a win at the Tour Championship of Shadow, T third win and in the Net Division T six, T two, first T eleven, first T eight.
I mean, like that, it's insane.
We're like two months removed from that stretch of golf, and somehow it seems like he's kind of flying under the radar.
And the best part about it is Andy is I don't think it matters either way to Dustin, right, I think there's so many players you brought up, Rory, I think that helps. I think over the last few years it was nice for Jordan Speed not to be, you know, captain feature group and to be the guy that was kind of featured in every tournament every single week. We allowed him to kind of breathe and try to figure things out on the golf course. For Dustin, I don't
think it matters. I mean, I think Dustin goes about his business the same each and every week, whether it's a major championship, it's a PGA Tour event, if he's playing you know, a charity event, whatever the thing may be. I just feel like Dustin's mentality is very similar and his approach is very similar. Like Dustin's one of those guys to me, is that has figured out his process, right. I think there's so many players still searching for their process.
You know, they're still searching for what's the best for me this week. I'm working on this. I'm trying to tweak this. To me, Dustin has figured out what works best for him, and you know, some week he goes out there and has a great week, and some weeks rarely he doesn't. But yes, I absolutely get that feeling of Dustin kind of flying under the radars and the defending champion. You know, he speaks today with the media, so you know, we'll get some stuff out of that
as well. That you know, they obviously have the champions dinner on Tuesday nights, so we'll get stuff out of that as well. But for a guy that just won a few months ago here to kind of snag to me, the really important major championship for his career, the second one, as you said, kind of off the top to kind of open the open the floodgates, if you will, for Dustin Johnson to maybe win five or six majors in a latter part of his career. I do. I do
since that he's he's not. He's a little bit of the forgotten number one.
And that just like we we talked about, with two majors, get the three. Crazy when especially when you put up his his PGA tour resume, which is just astounding, his WGC, his his playoff record. I mean, he he only wins big events, and if he gets the three majors, it is a he is probably by far the greatest player of his generation. If you take ten years on either side.
I know he might butt into Butte, into Tiger, but from Ricky to to Sergio Area, he's by far the best, and it's preposterous that he's Ogilvy talked about this on my pod U after the last Masters. He told a story about playing a practice round with DJ at Augusta. It was like maybe his first time out there, and he talked about how he was just he he played nine holes or I can't remember exactly how many holes and he walked off and he goes, oh my god, I just saw like the guy that's built to play
at this golf course. You know, It's like he's like it just was so easy for him. And I think that's the thing is he's had just unbelievable stretch of top tens. Is he can play bad and finish six here.
Again, kind of going back to what is so cool about the Masters. In terms of the players, you are a get it or don't get it player. Dustin is in that camp of get it. I mean each and every year he's going to be in contention. We know what he's done on these par fives. He you talk about Rory struggling on the par fives, you know, Dustin feasts on the par fives that Augusta he always has. I mean, you know, when you could bind strength and
obviously incredible accuracy with the irons, that's gonna happen. But the way Dustin plays the par fives makes me think of that two thousand, two thousand and one, two thousand and two stretch for t when he played these four fives and it just seemed like you'd have ten feet for eagle each and every hole.
Yeah, so forty six players have three majors or more. So it gets from eighty four or eighty three to forty six, pretty good jump. It basically cuts in half every major you add that number.
Andy, I I got something that's concerning as my next thing here, it's concerning as a left hander, do we have a serious lefty this year? Shot Bob Well, So you know it's I mean Phil obviously here, Mike, Mike Weir's here, Brian Harmon's in the field who's been playing great, and then Bob McIntyre as you mentioned, but we had that great run of south Pause at Augusta National, and then I'm a little concerned with the crop we have now. I mean, Phil is you never know what the heck
Phil's gonna do. I mean, you know, I think Brian Harmon could could could play Augusta well. I think Bob McIntyre could play Augusta well. But gone or the days we're you know, one of the top two or three favorites was a left hander.
We've got a dearth of left handed talent and the you know, I can't think of any young left handers outside of McIntyre. There's a uh, there's a really good Australian, young Australian, like a teenager who just turned pro. Elvis Smiley, who I think is a left hander. But I can't think of many high profile young Americans that are lefties. I apologize to anybody that I'm I'm disregarded here, but all the big young names are are all right handers. This is a sad day for you lefties.
Yeah, Oksha is kind of the guy we're leaning on right now. I mean he's Aksha's got a chance right if he could find it. But uh, I mean outside of that, yeah, it's uh. We had we had a great run left He's had a great run. We lean on Bob a lot. You know, Bubba was unbelievable, and you never know right with Bubba, who knows what he could do when he shows up. But it was a stretch. I'll say that. I feel like our great stretch might might be ending.
The thing too is like you would think that there'd be more of a leftis explosion because when you were growing up, left the equipment was like hard to find still and now all these kids they could get left the equipment is readily available, in some cases more available than right handed equipment and now we've got this, and where are all the lefties? It could be a great
investigative journalism peace. Do you think there's something Maybe golf coaches can't coach lefties as well as righties because there are so few left handed golf coaches. Maybe this is where the deep rooted problems exist.
When I was in high school, the only golf club I really wanted in my life was the titleist PT three. Would you remember that thing? I think it was the one touch. I still have one.
I have one, yeah, a size of like a dime.
You know that thing was tiny? Uh? And I always want to win left and I could never find it, I'm pretty sure. So there was a kidnamed Drew Pigg who was a lefty out of the Dallas here. I think he played for one of the Plano schools. I remember, I believe he had one. And I remember I was seeing an AJG A tournament. And uh, I'm not really much of at a thief. I don't really like to consider myself someone that wants to go steal things from people.
But the thought at least crossed my mind to go, you know, I could just go walk by this guy's bag, and all of a sudden i'd have the PT three would have in my hands. But that was the lefty club of all the lefty clubs that I wish I would have had him in my back of my heyday.
I occasionally put the PT in the bag, but I need to be in one in a groove like where I know the last few times, the last few times out I've been playing well. When you put it, when the ball's on the ground and you're hitting like a second shot out of the par five, you're just looking at and you're like, please hit this airborne. Please. I mean that is like the sides of the ball.
That's the difference in so and then and then you go to the other side of it at the same the same time, right you had the title lies in the or Lamar three would come out. Lamar was incredible, paper thin, and those were awesome on the fairways. But when you had to tem up, I would always stand it over and going, don't make a dummy mark, don't make a dummy mark. Don't make a dummy mark. You know, because you had to. You had have the smallest peg in golf history, uh to peg it up with with
those things. So we needed to find the great combo of those of those of those fairway woods.
I will die on the hill that the sonar tech was the greatest three wood of all time, the s S O three. I played golf with somebody with one recently. I still have bene they're in the garage. I haven't used it, but somebody had one and they were they were playing with it, and I was so envious. Now that I think about it, I'm back. I might be putting it back in the bag.
This what this is what people people wanted to hear. What do you have as as as one of your five things.
I've got the the young crop of players, so I'm I'm looking at Sung, Jay Morikawa, Hovland, uh Nieman. All these guys. They they've now for the most part, all had one trip around Augusta, which we we know, like, hey, expectations are what they are the first year, like get it, somebody get in contention, but you know, likely winning your
first time around. So slim. But we see, like we've talked about Speth, like these guys that just gravitate towards Augusta's success where they just play this golf course better than their peers. And I'm really interested to see if we start to see some trends emerge. The big one would be does sunk Jam contend again? If he does?
Is he this Augusta iron man of these young you know, twenty three twenty four year olds that have kind of exploded into golf and our household names now or is it more Kaala like Morikawa seems to have all the skills that you want in terms of a a Augusta thoroughbread, you know, the iron play. Obviously, putter could be a little shaky. I think short game is kind of the underrated thing. Augusta, though, is the one. And that's where I love sucking pitching.
It's pitching right. I mean, I always say, we talk so much about putting right at Augusta National, and we've seen unbelievable putters win at this golf course. But we've seen some pretty bad putters, you know, in terms of statistics in professional golf win here. I mean, you think about Adam Scott of recently, and you think about Sergio.
But Sergio is a great pitcher, unbelievable, like maybe the most underrated pitcher of the golf ball of all time. Because everybody like the way he drove it, the way he hit irons was mesmerizing, but the way he pitched his short game has been so underrated for twenty years.
So I want to piggyback on what you just said as one of my things, and one of my things is Justin Thomas, and it kind of plays into the same thing because Jordan Spieth maybe tainted the way we look at young players who play Augusta. I mean, we saw what Tiger did in ninety seven. Took a long time before we got another young player kind of bursting on the scene, having a chance to win his first
Masters and then winning a second. Right for Justin Thomas, it's taken a little bit of time to understand Augusta, which is a natural progression. I mean that's what typically happens at this golf course. So JT at the Master's twenty sixteen, T thirty ninth, twenty seventeenth, T twenty second, twenty eighteen, T seventeenth, twenty nineteen, T twelve, twenty twenty fourth.
Is that is that a good trend?
Yeah? I would say I would say it's helpful. I would say if you own stock in Justin Thomas, you're making money, life, life looks better than worse. So you know, when that's the way it's going, obviously it's a guy that's getting more comfortable and understanding the golf course. You know, maybe we play up at some places experience. I think this is one of the places where we probably don't talk about experience enough because obviously it's huge, right, I mean, understanding what to do?
You know.
Lee Westwood talked about it in his press conference, just about the experience around this place. Bryson talked about trying to get more comfortable with his iron shots, his approaches in to greens, and making sure he's in the right areas where the whole locations are going to be cut. So when you talk about experience, this is the place you've got to talk about it. For JT, I mean, you know, and now he's got to finish third, second
or win right to continue that upward trend. But I feel like he's in a place where that could easily happen. So for me, when you talk about these young players, sure it'd be great if Sujay went out there and won this week, And I think some Jay's gonna have an unbelievable chance at winning with the way he's played at the at Augusta Nashvillal in November, with the way
he's played this year. But for a lot of guys, it's looking at what Justin Thomas has been able to do over the last few years and trying to replicate what JT has done. Let's let's improve each and every year and then we can get to a position where we have a chance to actually win this thing.
With JT. Last year, I thought he played as well as DJ. It was just a few big mistakes that cost him. It was, you know, he made the double or a triple in one of the early rounds that and it's just these little things. But when you look at all of his skills, he drives it unbelievably well. His iron play is he's one of the five best players in the world with with his irons, and then he's a great he's got an unbelievable short game. Some of those shots around the greens that he hits are
just outstanding. And he's got a different style, like it's not everything's not just like it doesn't seem like everything's just auto lob wedge. He hits some really crafty little bump and runs you know he has the requisite shots and the shot making ability that I think it suits so well at Augusta, and I think where the struggle has been. And I don't know if this is real or not, but when I think about players that utilize green reading books heavily, maybe highest usage on tour, he
falls into the bucket. And I think that is a big deal playing golf. When you're used to playing with a green reading book and going to Augusta where they are not allowed, it takes time to learn those greens. Like then that's why maybe experience matters here more than anywhere else. Is one of the factors is like you don't get this tool that tells you contours, Like I know they're very complex to use, but you know JT.
And Bryson is another guy. Bryson, you know, he's probably better at using green reading book than anybody in the world and he doesn't get to use that. And he talked about it in a I saw a clip that a follower sent from the Aussie's Fox Sports where he talked about like how it's a challenge, like I used to read greens when I was in junior golf, Like that's the last that's the last time Bryson played without green reading books junior golf except for this tournament once
a year. So it's definitely And you can point to JT like where he was historically like one of the worst putters ever at Augusta his first few years out here, and and all of a sudden that's turning around. He's comfortable, and I think that's, like you said, a perfect example of the progression of a young player, and I think he will be a factor at Masters for maybe decades to come.
He made he made four sixes in twenty twenty for the week, four sixes. If you remember, he bogie fifty, He bogey thirteen to one round, bogey two to one round, made a double on one in the second round. So I mean he made the numbers you can't make right. I mean this kind of goes back to things you can't do right, and you just kind of can't boge thirteen and fifteen, and you definitely can't both bogey multiple times throughout the week if you want to have a chance.
That's how important those holes are, especially in a week like this where we think it's gonna play tougher, you've got to take advantage of the holes you can take advantage of, So that will be something that'll be worth watching, right, is how he's gonna get around and how he can avoid those mistakes. And also, I mean you said it, You've said it multiple times about being a great pitcher.
I think Justin Thomas is an unbelievable pitcher. I don't know a guy that holds out more from off the green than JT.
It's something whether you're a great ball striker like Sergio or like JT is. I think that the billity the pitching, because we don't see it that much, gets overshadowed. It's just he's so good. It's so much fun to watch him hit shots around. My last one the Ams, this is the smallest group of AMS we've had in forever. I feel like they must feel lonely. You know, they don't have and it's talk about like you don't want to finish last and Ams.
There's only three of them, right, It's like it's like it's such a condensed battle for lowa Ham and being Lowham at the Masters is such a huge thing. It's such a historically huge thing. I mean, I always think about the moments in those in those you know, four day tournaments right at the Masters, and I think about the US Open, I think about the Open Championship, about being low am there and the list of the historically great players that tick that off their list. It's really
hard to win US Amateurs. It's really hard to win US Junior amaters. I mean when you go through the list of the players that we talk about these days, how few of them won US Amateurs? Right, Dustin Johnson never won one, John Rahm never won one. Justin Thomas
never won one. I mean kind of going down that list, right, But to be low AM is something attainable for these players, and it's something that we've seen from Nicholas and Palmer and Tiger and Phil and all of these greats, you know, speed on down the list, Bryson and so to go out there and be low AM is a stepping stone of the greats. And so when you have a small group like we do this year, it's really important to go out there and play well because again, this this
means something. Low amateur means something at these huge golf events.
Yeah totally, And it's just uh yeah, unique opportunity where you can easily finish last of the ams and easily finish first because there's only three of them.
It's a it's wild again, I think, Uh, you know, there's so many cool traditions. Obviously to Gusta National for Masters Week, you know, the way the ams are celebrated is one of my favorite parts of it. You know, how much they're talked about, how much respect goes around with what they've been able to accomplish in their career, how much, how much how much love we give them
for what they did to get here. Obviously, I'm a huge fan of amter golf and kind of getting a chance to cover those amateur events with Box and the USGA, it opened my eyes up to a world that I didn't even know existed in certain in certain parts of that and so to kind of see that celebration happen at the biggest stage in professional golf, in the biggest stage of golf is something that I really appreciated and really to come off the Augusta National Women's Amateur into
Masters Week and uh and seeing the way the amateurs are treated, it's it's it's really really really special week. And so yeah, who's your pick? Who's your low MP pick?
I think the you gotta go with Strafashi. He's by far the highest ranked. That said, he's coming off an injury. He heard his ribs, so he hasn't really played much golf. So that's the one, one kind of alarming thing. Who about what about you? Who's your pick to win too?
I was thinking about this throughout the week. I just I love Sung Jay's chances. I and the I try not to go with a chalk pick when I do these, because picking stuff is ridiculous to begin with, especially in golf. But I try to go with somebody that's not right there. You know that that's not the top five, it's not the top eight, it's not the most obvious. I like Sung J going in. I think some Jay's got a
great chance to get himself in the conversation. Again, so I think the easy picks j T or Speed or DJ or whomever. But I think Sung J is who I'm kind of circling, is who I think has the most the most likely chance to do something special.
Yeah, I think obviously when you remove rom Deshambo, j T, DJ and Speith, then you get a little bit it opens up a little bit. You know, I probably am gonna pick one of those five, I'm still not sure who I'm gonna pick.
But you're not gonna pick west Wood.
No, he's broken my heart too many times here. I uh, you know, I'm kind of I'm sneaky thinking he Deci's got a good, good shot, he hasn't done anything well recently.
But maybe an underrated pitcher as well. I mean, I think that's kind of what we're circling at least on this podcast, is if you're gonna look at somebody to love this week, especially Andy, especially if we're gonna see it fast. I mean, if it's gonna stay like this, and I'm expecting it to stay like this, if it's gonna be firm and play, you know, really really tough Augusta National. It's gonna be so important to be able to get the ball in and around the hole when
you miss greens, because you're gonna miss greens. So those are something.
It's gonna magnify. It's gonna magnify hitting into the greens and then hitting around the greens.
Absolutely, absolutely, because you're gonna you're going to miss greens.
Hey, real quick, people are gonna see hearing more of you. It's exciting. I didn't even know about this until we started recording.
What's that this week?
They're gonna hear more from you than just live from right.
Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna I'm a part of I'm a part of the Masters dot com digital coverage as well, which starts obviously on Thursday. So super pumped about that. I feel, you know, you pinch yourself sometimes when you get these opportunities, and this is obviously as as big a pinch as I've ever u I've ever done to myself, you know, getting a chance to to to be a
part of that. So very honored, very excited. It's uh again, it's just it's just wild to get the opportunity to be here and and get a chance to kind of be a part of these teams. Is uh. It's such a cool thing. And you know, I I still go back to four. You know, I was a left hander in East Texas. It was Easter Sunday. We're at my
aunt's lake house. We had like a I don't know what twenty inch TV in one of her bedrooms with you know, rabbit ears and Phil's gonna win his first Masters potentially, and Phil was my guy, and uh, and I mean it was the moment of all the moments as a kid, I remember that was the one that really kind of comes to mind, was was oh for Phil having that chance there and obviously pulling it off
with the putter. Remember there's like fifteen of us hubbled around this very small TV watching the end of it. So to kind of be here in this capacity now again, it's it's it's it's pinch It's pinchworthy, that's for sure. So I'm very fired up for the week.
It's uh, nothing better than getting the uh, the soothing tones of Shane Bacon's voice in your living room on Thursday and Friday mornings. You know you're gonna be with us before the coverage comes on. I feel like that's a you know, Masters dot Com probably I would love to know the ratings that it would get, because I feel like everybody Thursday morning, there's no heighten, more heightened excitement about the Masters than Thursday morning, very.
Very excited, excited for the week. I I'm about to go back out there in a few minutes. I take a shower and go out and uh thanks for the time, of course, of course, uh anytime, you know that. But I'm excited about it. So yeah, thanks for the time as well. I always love chatting with you. I knew you know what. We only overlap like one or two things. I was very proud of us. We did we not, by the way, we didn't bring up Brooks kept go
once on this podcast, Andy, we didn't. I don't even know if we didn't know his name.
He's got he's gonna have the receipts. We're gonna be getting tweets at us.
Maybe, I know that's that's a great point, and it.
Does seem it seems great here real quick. It seems crazy to be able the sway of golf club all out but struggle to walk well.
I mean, I told you I watched that Tiger doc on HBO and they focus obviously a lot on his injuries and him being injured and playing through it. And you see him and he would literally be win seen to kind of stand up and to kind of extend the knee, and then he's hitting you know, these three woods on greens and stuff, and it's just I don't know if it's the it's accepting the pain in your brain, you know, over the golf shot going, I'm gonna make
a move who cares if it hurts. I can deal with it knowing that the golf swing is such a short amount of time. But something of these guys man there, they're a different breed. To go out there with a major injury to be able to play through it is pretty crazy. And so whatever he does this week, mad respect for him to show it up. Well.
Thanks so much for the time, Shane, and we'll talk sim absolutely. Thank you for listening to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. This episode was edited by Meg Atkins and Garrett Morrison. And a quick reminder, we've got a couple pools that are free to enter, free to win, you know, you get your chance to win free merchandise. So you can go on and sign up for those if you're subscribed to the newsletter or if you're on
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